Will an Emerging Standard Take Over the Routing Realm? An Evaluative Analysis of DUAL and SPF

This paper aims to discuss a comprehensive list of demerits associated with the use of Diffusing Update Algorithm compared to its link-state counterpart, namely, Shortest Path First algorithm which is a variant of Dijkstra's algorithm. Such a comparison was neglected for the past two decades due to the proprietary nature of the former protocol. This has led to the prevalence of the latter which is why many computer network professionals adamantly recommend implementing link-state protocols in campus implementations. However, this is of importance today pursuant to the release of several IETF Internet drafts in an attempt to standardize the Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol. Dynamic routing protocols rely on algorithms computing the shortest paths using weighted digraphs and tree traversals. In this paper, not only are the algorithms discussed but also an in-depth analysis of the various features of the aforementioned protocols is conducted. Abandoning the periodicity of update massages and operating in an event- driven fashion with automatic failover capability are some of the features that will be analyzed. Part of the novelty of this paper lies in the mathematical representation of decision-making processes and metric computation. One of the notable findings of this paper is an evaluative analysis of convergence times achieved in a typical university campus routing implementation. Moreover, using wide metric vectors contributes to energy-aware routing and improved performance for jitter-sensitive services.